- Describe your company in one paragraph.
Indigma is a European deep-tech startup developing next-generation Artificial Intelligence systems that combine scientific excellence with real-world impact. The company focuses on privacy-preserving AI, Federated Learning, and decentralised data intelligence, enabling organisations to unlock the value of distributed data while maintaining security, transparency, interpretability and regulatory compliance. Indigma is also the creator of FedMaestro, a federated learning orchestration platform designed to coordinate machine learning model training across distributed edge environments. The team brings together researchers and engineers with strong experience in EU innovation projects and collaborations with leading institutions. Through various EU and national funded projects, Indigma has delivered secure and scalable AI solutions for sectors including healthcare, smart cities, and digital infrastructure.
- What challenge are you addressing under the O-CEI Horizon’s first Open Call, and how is your proposal relevant to the challenge?
Europe’s transition to electric mobility is accelerating, but managing large electric vehicle fleets efficiently requires intelligent data-driven systems. Today, most AI solutions rely on centralised cloud infrastructures where operational data must be collected and processed in one place. This creates important challenges related to privacy, data ownership, infrastructure compatibility, and regulatory compliance.
Our project ARIEL (federAted oRchestration In Ev fLeets) addresses this challenge by enabling machine learning training directly at the edge of EV fleet infrastructures. In particular, instead of transferring operational data to centralised servers, ARIEL allows ML models to be trained locally at fleet depots using federated learning.
At the heart of the system is FedMaestro, Indigma’s federated learning orchestration platform, which coordinates distributed model training across edge nodes such as charging depots and fleet control units. FedMaestro ensures secure aggregation of model updates, supports asynchronous participation of nodes, and maintains reliable operation even under unstable connectivity conditions.
Through this architecture, ARIEL enables fleet operators to develop AI models that forecast charging demand, estimate battery health, and ultimately, optimise energy usage while keeping sensitive operational data locally controlled.
By validating ARIEL within O-CEI Pilot 3 and delivering reusable assets to the O-CEI marketplace, the project demonstrates how federated AI can power the next generation of intelligent, privacy-preserving mobility systems in Europe.
- What is the expected impact of your proposal?
ARIEL demonstrates how distributed AI can unlock new possibilities for the management of electric vehicle fleets across Europe. By enabling AI models to be trained locally at fleet depots rather than in centralised clouds, the project introduces a new paradigm for intelligent mobility systems that respects data sovereignty and operational privacy.
Powered by FedMaestro, ARIEL allows distributed infrastructures to collaborate in training AI models without sharing raw data. This enables fleet operators to improve charging strategies, anticipate battery degradation, and optimise energy usage while maintaining full control of their data.
The impact of this approach extends beyond fleet operations. ARIEL contributes to Europe’s vision for trustworthy and sovereign AI by demonstrating how privacy-preserving machine learning can operate at scale across heterogeneous infrastructures. The project also supports the goals of the European Green Deal by improving the efficiency of EV charging infrastructure, reducing energy waste, and enabling better integration of renewable energy into fleet operations.
Through the O-CEI ecosystem, ARIEL will deliver reusable software components, deployment blueprints, and federated AI assets that can be adopted by other sectors such as smart cities, logistics, and distributed energy systems. By combining edge intelligence, privacy-by-design principles, and interoperable infrastructure, ARIEL helps pave the way for a more sustainable, intelligent, and data-sovereign European mobility ecosystem.
Website: https://indigma.eu/
